As editors of this book, we seek contributions that critically address hip-hop archives (both digital and physical) and the processes of archivization, encompassing theoretical and analytical perspectives and exploring globally dispersed cases. We particularly welcome contributions from individuals who are in some way actively engaged in the development or operation of hip-hop archives in any medium and at any stage or scale, whether independent collections or institutionally supported enterprises. We also value the various ways in which hip-hop culture is engaged from historical and material perspectives, allowing for examination of the archive as a historical apparatus as well as a contemporary physical assemblage of artifacts.
This book focuses on the culture and politics involved in building, maintaining, and researching hip-hop archives. It addresses practical aspects, including methods of accumulation, curation, preservation, and digitization and critically analyzes institutional power, community engagement, urban economics, public access, and the ideological implications associated with hip-hop culture’s enduring tensions with dominant social values.

Speakers of German may be interested in our academic conference on Berlin noise-makers Einstürzende Neubauten. Admission is free, registration not necessary. Blixa Bargeld will appear at an evening event for which there will be a charge at the door.

We are happy to inform you that the proceedings of the IASPM conference held in Kassel in 2017 is finally published by Springer. You may order e-book and/or softcover copy of “Contemporary Popular Music Studies” via this link: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783658252526. Please find here short description and table of contents:

The London College of Music at UWL is is creating opportunities for a number of 3-year fully funded PhD Scholarships. These will be available for all eligible UK/EU students. Although we are accepting proposals on a broad range of topics, we have 8 target areas that are:
1. Pedagogical practices in one-to-one instrumental and vocal tuition
2. The non-subject-specific benefits of music education in primary and secondary schools
3. Integrating the teaching of expression into grade level instrumental and vocal tuition
4. Part learning in popular music performance: tacit learning of tacit knowledge in a popular music ensemble context
5. An embodied / ecological approach to audio mixing
6. A creative practice-as-research approach to exploring issues of gender, music and technology
7. 3-D Audio Production
8. Interactive Recorded Music

Sonic Futures:
Performing Identity in the ‘Global’ City
(25 April at London College of Communication, Elephant and Castle, London)

The idea for this one-day conference stems from a series of workshops, Sonic Futures: Identity and Sustainability through Music and Performance, supported by London College of Communication (Teaching and Learning Fund) in collaboration with May Project Gardens (Hip Hop Garden). Adopting a mixed-method approach, this pilot project sought to engage students from LCC in a series of workshops that explored the connections between social issues (e.g. social cohesion, participatory and sustainable practices and active citizenry, to name a few), politics and identity formations at the intersections of class, ethnicity, race, gender and the environment. Primarily, this project aimed to instigate critical thinking and reflections on cultural practices and genre through performance in general and Hip Hop music and culture in particular. Gardening is connected to questions of psycho-physical wellbeing, community building and sustainability in the global city. Overall, Hip Hop Critical Pedagogies provided a productive template that helped combine all these different aspects.Considering the nature and the objectives of these activities, the students who participated in the programme decided to actively work towards an event that could reflect on the critical questions raised during the workshops.Continue reading →